Seth Rogen says “fear” has kept him from working with Marvel or DC.
Speaking with Polygon about the upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem movie, Rogen was asked if there was anything that “turned him off” from working with Marvel or DC on a project.
“Honestly, probably fear,” Rogen answered. “We really have a pretty specific way we work; me and Evan [Goldberg] have been writers for 20 years at this point. It’s a fear of the process, honestly. And I say that knowing nothing about the process. There are a lot of Marvel things I love.”
He continued: “It’s mostly a fear of how would we plug into the system they have in place, which seems like a very good system, and a system that serves them very well. But is it a system that we would ultimately get really frustrated with? And what’s nice about [Mutant Mayhem] is that we’re the producers of this. So we dictated the system, and we dictated the process in a lot of ways. And that’s what’s also appealing for us about The Boys and the other bigger franchise-y type things we’ve done, is that we are creating the infrastructure and process for them, not plugging into someone else’s infrastructure and process. We’re control freaks!”
Seth Rogen is no stranger to comic book adaptations
Along with co-writing, producing, and starring in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, Rogen has been involved with a number of other comic book movies and television shows. He and Goldberg wrote 2011’s The Green Hornet, which Rogen also starred in, before the two of them also developed Preacher for AMC alongside Sam Catlin.
Additionally, Rogen and Goldberg both serve as executive producers on Amazon Prime’s The Boys and Invincible.
When asked about his taste in comics, Rogen told Polygon, “It’s everything that is not Marvel and DC. So that eliminates a lot right away. I grew up going to comic book shops, and it’s funny, video stores are making a slight comeback in some ways. This idea of browsing and not having things fed to you — as I think people feel we are now when it comes to entertainment — but instead entering the fair market of entertainment and just wandering around and seeing what catches your eye.”
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem releases theatrically in the United States on Aug. 2, 2023.
